1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a female terminal to be connected to a male terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a female terminal fitting to be connected to a mating terminal is known, for example, fromJapanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H06-9069. This female terminal fitting includes a box-shaped electrically connecting portion composed of a base plate, side walls and an upper plate, and a resilient contact piece arranged in this electrically connecting portion. The resilient contact piece is formed into a cantilever-like shape by being folded backward from the front edge of the base plate. Further, the resilient contact piece has a chevron shape when viewed laterally and comes into line contact with the mating terminal at a top of the chevron shape.
However, in the above female terminal fitting, if at least one of the mating terminal and the female terminal fitting is relatively twisted about an axis extending in an inserting direction of the mating terminal into the electrically connecting portion, a contact state between the resilient contact piece and the mating terminal changes from line contact to point contact, whereby a contact area suddenly changes. Accordingly, it is also thought to eliminate a sudden change of the contact area at the time of twisting by forming a contact point of a female terminal fitting 1 with a mating terminal 2 into an embossed part 3 as shown in FIG. 14. However, according to this method, a contact pressure increases when a slant portion 65 of a tip 4 of the mating terminal 2 or an intersection 7 between the slant portion 5 and a horizontal portion 6 moves onto the embossed part 3, thereby increasing an insertion force. Further, in the female terminal fitting 1 in which a plating is formed on a surface of the embossed part 3, a plating base may be exposed and connected to the mating terminal 2, for example, if the mating terminal 2 is repeatedly inserted into and withdrawn from the female terminal fitting 1 such as for maintenance.